


Sweet gingerbread made with molasses

by BroadwayBaggins



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blizzards & Snowstorms, Christmas, F/M, Hallmark Christmas Movie AU, Inspired by Hallmark Christmas Movies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28341153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BroadwayBaggins/pseuds/BroadwayBaggins
Summary: So far, nothing about this trip was going as Henry expected...especially meeting Emma Green
Relationships: Emma Green/Henry Hopkins
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Mercy Street Crossover Advent Silver and AU





	Sweet gingerbread made with molasses

“Come on, come on, come on!” Henry gasped desperately, twisting the key in the ignition one last time as if that would make a difference. In answer to his silent prayers, the car sputtered one last time before going silent. “No!”

Henry slapped the steering wheel with the palm of his hand, hissing a few very un-Christian words under his breath. His profanity did nothing to help his situation, and he slumped forward over the steering wheel. At some point between when his car had stalled and now, he had broken out in a sweat, and now as he yanked the key out of the ignition and the car’s heat shut off, he shivered at the sudden cold that seeped into the car almost immediately. You could always count on New England cold to come through for you, even if nothing else would.

He threw himself back against the car seat and glanced up at the sky. “You just couldn’t make this easy, could you?” he asked softly, shaking his head.

Admittedly, it was partially Henry’s fault. When the college of his dreams had called up and asked him if he could come in for a job interview three days before Christmas, he hadn’t even hesitated a full minute before he said yes. It was only a seven-hour drive, he reasoned, plenty of time to get there and back and still be able to make the Christmas morning service. It would be easy, he’d told himself.

That was his first mistake. His second was forgetting the fact that his car was unreliable in the best of circumstances. And his last, he realized as he looked balefully at the thick, fluffy snowflakes that were now beginning to fall, was failing to check the weather forecast for his drive.

With another muttered curse, he unbuckled his seatbelt and got his bag out of the car. He locked the car and slung the bag over his shoulder, checking his cell phone and finding that he had no service. Because of course he didn’t.

Henry shoved his hands deep in his pockets, hunched his shoulders against the cold, and started to walk.

\----------------

By the time he reached the center of town, his pants were soaked in snow to nearly his knees, and he couldn’t feel his toes. The falling snow reminded him of being stuck in a snowglobe, but he was too cold to truly appreciate the beauty of it.

“Excuse me,” he said as he spotted a woman up ahead toting several shopping bags. “I’m sorry to bother you. My car broke down a few miles back. Do you know where I might find a mechanic?”

“Oh, you poor thing! You’ll want the Fairfax’s garage. Best mechanics in town. It’s up the hill a ways, just past the hotel.”

“Hotel?”

“Yep, the Green family’s hotel. You can’t miss it.”

Henry thanked the woman and hurried on his way. He found the garage easily but found it locked and empty, and no one appeared when he pounded on the door. Henry took a step back, his entire frame shaking with frustration and probably cold, and buried his head in his hands to think.

“The hotel,” he said out loud, getting a mouthful of snowflakes for his trouble. Hotels had phones. Hotels had central heating and maybe food and a place to sit down. He would go to the hotel and call the mechanic and try to salvage what was left of this day. Maybe he could even be back on the road before dinner.

The hotel--strangely named Mansion House, which seemed like an oxymoron--looked like something out of a children’s picture book about Christmas. Christmas lights hung from every available surface, and Henry counted no less than three Christmas trees in the windows. The yard even boasted a life-size version of Santa’s sleigh, complete with plastic reindeer. Henry carefully made his way up the snow-covered steps and knocked on the door once before cautiously opening it himself.

Instantly the aroma of cinnamon and sugar filled his nose. A plate of cheerful gingerbread cookies sat on a table in the entryway, with a note in loopy cursive inviting him to help himself. A roaring fire crackled in the fireplace directly opposite the door, and the overstuffed armchairs beckoned, but Henry had a mission before he could even think about warming himself up.

“Hello?” he called out, finding the rest of the lobby area deserted. At first, no one answered him, but after a moment he heard a very irate female voice.

“No, no, no! These won’t do at all, Frank! You _know_ how important it is to engage on social media in this day and age. What about these photos says, _‘come stay in our hotel’_? Absolutely nothing, that’s what! We have to do it again.”

Henry heard footsteps and looked up to see a young blonde woman sweep into the room, her hands clenched into fists. She was dressed in a short red cocktail dress trimmed with white fur--perhaps meant to be reminiscent of Mrs. Claus, although Henry doubted Mrs. Claus would show quite that much cleavage--with a Santa hat perched jauntily on her head. Trailing in her wake was a man around Henry’s age, scrolling through his phone. “This one wasn’t so bad--”

“They’re all trash, Frank. We can do better. Let’s try some in front of the fire.” Her icy gaze fell on Henry, and she scowled. “Can I help you? We’re kind of in the middle of a photoshoot here.”

Caught off guard, Henry began, “Um, I was wondering--”

“Emma!” the girl called over her shoulder into the next room. “Customer!”

“I’m not a--”

“Just go on through to the kitchen and Emma will help you out, okay, sugar?” The girl smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Come on, Frank, we’ve got work to do.”

Just like that, Henry found himself dismissed. He made his way to the other room, which turned out to be a bright, airy kitchen. The aroma of cookies was even stronger here, and he saw several trays of gingerbread on the counter, cooling and waiting for decorations. “Hello?”

“Over here!” trilled a voice, and Henry turned to see a dark-haired woman carefully taking a tray out of the oven. She wore a festive red and green apron over her Christmas sweater, and she smiled from ear to ear as she set the cookies down and tugged off her oven mitts. “Welcome to Mansion House Hotel! How can I help you?”

Once again, Henry was taken aback--only this time it was not because he was being so rudely dismissed, as he had in the lobby, but because the woman before him was...there was no other word he could use but beautiful. Her smile seemed to light up her entire face, and as he looked at her, he felt calm for the first time all day.

“Um. I was told to come in here...I was apparently interrupting a photoshoot of some kind?”

The woman’s face fell. “I’m so sorry. My sister Alice has become obsessed with enhancing the hotel’s ‘social media presence’--Lord only knows why, my parents barely even know what Instagram is. But she’s insistent, and it keeps her busy...”

She wiped her floury hands on her apron and held out a hand to Henry. “My name’s Emma Green. My family owns this place. If you’re checking in with us, I can offer you a fairly wide choice--any room in the inn including mine,” she said with a giggle. The phrase sounded familiar to Henry, but he couldn’t quite place it.

“I was actually wondering if I could use your phone? Mine has no service.” As if to prove it, he took it out of his pocket and glanced at it. “And, actually, is dead right now too.”

“The cold can mess with a phone’s battery sometimes. Of course you can use ours. What happened?”

Henry grimaced. “My car broke down. It’s always been a hunk of junk, and now I think it truly gave up the ghost. I tried to go to the mechanic’s, but they were closed.”

Emma nodded. “I’m so sorry about that. The Fairfax family also owns the only tow truck in town. When someone needs a tow--which happens a lot in the winter--they usually have to shut down the garage until they come back, since there’s usually only one person working at a time.”

That didn’t seem like a very practical business model to Henry, but he decided not to question it. “I just really need to get my car back on the road. I have a job interview to get to, and--”

“Emma! What are you doing? You should have gotten dinner started half an hour ago!”

Henry turned as another woman entered the room, her hair pulled back in a severe bun. “Mama, I was just going to, but we have a guest,” Emma explained, and Henry could see faintly the resemblance between the two. “This is...”

“Henry Hopkins,” he said, realizing that he had never introduced himself to Emma. “I actually just need to use the phone,” Henry explained for the third time. “I have a job interview to go to, and--”

“Oh, no, sweetheart, you can’t get back on the road tonight,” Emma’s mother said with sympathy. “Haven’t you checked the weather forecast?”

“No, why?”

“A major winter storm is going to be coming through. Just look outside.” Sure enough, the snow was falling faster now, and night was already beginning to fall. Walking to the hotel must have taken longer than Henry had thought. “Soon the roads will be impassable. I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay here tonight.”

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Hallmark Movie AU prompt for Mercy Street Advent. Tropes galore and White Christmas references because I can't help myself. Thanks to middlemarch for coming up with the amazing set of 25 prompts this month and I'm sorry this is embarrassingly late!
> 
> Title from "You Make it feel like Christmas" by Gwen Stefani with Blake Shelton


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